Dorney Park and Wildwater Kingdom Discussion Thread

[boldikus]

Dorney disabled the holding break on Possessed because it cost them too much electricity and power to run it.

[bert425]

so glad I got to ride it with the "hold" when we were there a few years back.

 

it made the ride for me.

[BDD27]

Went to the park today for opening day, it ended up being a nice day. The park was completely dead, but then again I feel like Dorney normally is. All the coasters were running well, although it felt a bit bittersweet riding possessed after the death of volcano. I will say I enjoy visiting Dorney as I don't have to rush around the park to hit every ride, but I can take my time and enjoy rerides and experience everything including a great collection of flats.

While not the best hyper, I do genuinely enjoy steel force and find it to be the best of the Morgan hypers that I have experienced

Thunderhawk in the back row is actually a really fun ride and I love the newer sleek trains on it

I hope to never see this ride leave, first gen drop towers are amazeballs, sadly I only got one ride as it was down for most of the day

Hydra is a pretty good ride, not as good as Talon, but definitely a unique fun floorless coaster

The jo-jo roll is definitely a unique element

Talon is a great ride, my third favorite invert behind Banshee and Alpengeist

Possessed is a super fun ride and now the only way I can get a volcano like taste, but alas great launches

Love the sound of the LIM's

The trout pond is a nifty little spot in Dorney worth a look, you can find it next to Demon Drop

At the end of a nice opening day, no lines and no rain makes for a great day!

[coasterbill]

That Posessed station photo is the Dorneyest thing ever.

 

Look at that line...

[BDD27]

That Posessed station photo is the Dorneyest thing ever.

 

Look at that line...

 

This was every ride in the park all day. The only ride that had even a minor wait was Thunderhawk because of 1 train ops, but hey I'm not gonna complain about how dead Dorney is. I enjoy front row walk ons

[CaptainUnknown]

Valley Fair posted a video on their FB today showing off their holding break working again. Come on Dorney, get your sh*t together.

 

Rumor I heard was Valleyfair got the part(s) to get theirs working again from Dorney. So, they gave their sh*t to Valleyfair.

[coasterbill]

NewsPlusNotes posted some opening day pictures and it looks like the park is making a ton of electrical upgrades to the front of the park. In the short term this is for their Grand Carnivale event but it seems like an impressive infrastructure upgrade for a 3 week event and nothing else.

 

It should be noted that the other 3 parks that are getting this event already have similar infastructure in place for Winterfest. Kings Dominion had panels like this absolutely everywhere.

 

Draw your own conclusions but I don’t believe for a second that Dorney isn’t thinking ahead with this. The fact that it’s all right in the front of the park serves to make it even more obvious.

 

Newsplusnotes

[Canobie Coaster]

I can only imagine how short WinterFest lines get at Dorney based on their summer lines.

[coasterbill]

I don't know, I feel like since it's Cedar Fair and they'll probably only run Talon (because... reasons) and maybe the mouse with it's awful loading system it should be on par with every other day.

[Hershey_flags]

The only other major Christmas event I can think of in the area is Winter Light Spectacular at the Lehigh Valley Zoo. That place gets slammed for that event with long waits to just get into the parking lot. I have no doubt that Winterfest would be a success at Dorney Park!

[YoshiFan]

Something I never thought I would see at Dorney happened. Fast Lane was sold out in multiple stores. The first 2 stores were out, the 3rd store told me I can’t get a wristband if it is all Season Fast Lane and finally store 4 allowed me to get a wristband. Lines aren’t too bad, 10 - 20 minutes but since I paid for it for the year for WWK, I thought I might as well use it on the ride side for once.

[Canobie Coaster]

I love how 10-20 minute lines at Dorney cause FastLane to sell out.

[YoshiFan]

It was also funny to see people enter a line and turn around and leave when they saw the end of the line even when it wasn't bad. In almost any other park people would be happy to wait up to 20 minutes on a nice weather Saturday.

[FocalRanger]

Friday May 24th Photo Trip Report

 

Dorney Park is a little over 3 hours away from me and in my 13 years of being a coaster enthusiast I have never made the trip out there, until this past Memorial Day weekend.

The weather was perfect in Allentown and I arrived to the park around 12pm. Started heading towards the front gate when I noticed swarms of students wearing the dreaded matching shirts There was a bunch of school music groups at the park that day. If it weren't for all the school kids it would of been absolutely dead. Wait times still were not bad at all. Never over 20-30 minutes.

We decided to hit Hydra first and chose the back row. I was so surprised by this floorless. The drop was nice in the back and I loved the flow of the inversions. The jojo roll was very fun and neat as well. I think this ties for my favorite floorless with Bizarro. So after Hydra we rode Thunder Canyon, White Water Landing, and Thunder Creek Mountain. Needless to say, we were wet. To dry off we waited the longest wait of the day and rode Thunderhawk. It was running one train operations until the staff did eventually add another train and test it which added to our wait at the time. My brother and I really liked Thunderhawk though. Airtime was there and a really cool turnaround topped with rich history and bam, that's a winner for me. From there we went over to Possessed. I enjoyed the non twisting spike a lot and wish I could of experienced the holding- brake! We also got stuck after the ride was finished as someone pushed on a gate in the station which flipped a sensor. The train was just sitting in the launch section for about 10-15 min. Not the worst experience. Since we were in the area, we waited about 10 minutes and hopped in the very last row of Steel Force. I was very excited to ride my first Morgan hyper and compare it to Magnum as well. Great floater airtime on every hill and a crazy turnaround on this one. Just a very fun re-rideable coaster. Was it better than Magnum for me? No, I still prefer Magnum just a tiny bit. After Steel Force we decided to check out some flat rides. Demon Drop was really cool in a messed up sort of way. Very horrifying and interesting experience. Revolution was fun and had no wait at all so that was nice. it was at this point in the day that the only remaining task my brother and I wanted to accomplish was ride Talon. This turned to be quite the adventure. Talon was running earlier in the afternoon but when we decided to head that way in the evening, there was the sight nobody wants to see, a chain across the entrance and an employee posted there to give the bad news. We walked away feeling defeated and I was already having feelings of regret for not having ridden it earlier in the day. This invert has been on my mind for such a long time and I was beyond bummed. To cheer ourselves up we bought some Rita's Italian ice and tried Hydra in the front row. I vote backrow over front for this ride. Upon exiting Hydra I saw a beautiful thing off in the distance... a train heading up Talon's lift. We made a beeline for it and were waiting in a 15 minute line. I was happy. We made it to the station and before you know it our restraints were being checked. But, instead of hearing an "All Clear" over the speakers, something less desired was stated. The ride ops told the station that Talon would be suspending operations for the moment and that everyone could continue to wait in line, but was not recommended. So, once again we walked away from Talon, this time hurting a little more than the first. I was starting to plan a second trip to Dorney in my head just to get a ride on this thing. To ease our pain this time we tried another run on Steel Force and was effective at changing our moods. At this point we decided to start heading towards the front gate and head home. To our surprise we saw Talon running as we were walking out. No questions asked we took our third attempt at riding the elusive invert. This time it was a walk on, so we chose the very front row. We had our restraints checked and this time, we were headed out the station and up the lift. This was definitely one of the smoothest B&M inverts I have ridden if not the smoothest. I loved the pacing, inversions, and the strong and fast finish. Well worth the wait I would say.

Overall, a really perfect day and a great first time for us at the park.

Onto the photos! Oh, and please excuse the lack of trains in the shots, I was feeling a little impatient that day

[michaellynn4]

Pretty cool photos! Glad you enjoyed it!

[DorneyKid14]

That last photo is beautiful! Amd the ones from hydra are fantastic! Hydra really is a photogenic coaster! Glas to hear you had a good time at the park!

[Canobie Coaster]

I know Dorney is often the butt of jokes, but it sure is one pretty park. Great photos!

[Jason Maier]

Nice photos, especially the ones feeding the ducks and a goose (they must like funnel cake)

[FocalRanger]

Thank you guys! I appreciate the feedback! And yes Dorney is a little gem in my opinion, I had a great time. I especially enjoyed the Steel Force/ Thunderhawk section of the park with Cedar creek running through it....and the geese of course!

[DorneyKid14]

Thank you guys! I appreciate the feedback! And yes Dorney is a little gem in my opinion, I had a great time. I especially enjoyed the Steel Force/ Thunderhawk section of the park with Cedar creek running through it....and the geese of course!

 

That section of the park is always so nice and well landscaped!

During haunt, its even better!

[boldikus]

Nice photos. Anytime friends/family ask me about Dorney I always always always say its a very nice park. I could complain about other things, but its a very nice park.

[bert425]

I just remember acres of concrete, and wishing for trees.

 

but we did have a good time there (it helped that Possessed holding break was still operating during our visit - tho Stinger was (of course) down).

[boldikus]

When I say nice I mean well-kept. They could definitely use more trees, other than around Thunderhawk.

[bert425]

I should have said tho, those really are some great pics

[njcoasterguy34]

If you think Steel Force was good in the back, wait till you ride it in the front. The front row is the only place I ride Steel Force.